Cards, such as credit cards, smart cards, debit cards and automated teller machine (“ATM”) cards having credit limits associated therewith, offer a tremendous amount of convenience to account holders by allowing the account holders to make one or more purchases, for instance, when not having the necessary funds. For most people credit is essential for big-ticket items such as homes, automobiles, appliances or educational purposes. Few people have enough cash saved for major purchases. Also, some households lack adequate emergency funds to cover unexpected expenses. Having credit available during times of financial emergencies can be important. Credit is a convenience, but credit is not free—financing adds to the total cost. Overspending is more likely to occur because credit is convenient to use and, as a result, some people fall into the trap of impulse spending rather than planned spending. There is also the tendency to look only at the required minimum monthly payment and not the total amount of the debt. Borrowers are liable for their debts regardless of changes that occur in the future. Payments need to be submitted for such accounts by a due date on a recurring basis assuming a balance remains for the respective account.
Various institutions allow account holders to authorize recurring withdrawals from an account, such as from a checking account, to pay a recurring bill due for another account of the account holder. In order to authorize and activate the recurring withdrawals, the account holder executes a document sent to the account holder by the respective institution or downloads the document from a website. The account holder sends the completed and signed document to the respective institution to activate the recurring withdrawals. Further, the account holder often has to provide to the institution a blank, voided check for the respective checking account. Due to the additional steps of having to receive/download the document and then having to complete, sign and send back the document, many account holders never activate the recurring withdrawals.
Additionally, voice response units enable account holders to access card information using a conventional touch tone telephone. The interaction between the account holders and the voice response unit includes various voice prompts, output by the voice response unit and responses thereto, for example, via the telephone keypad, by the account holder. Voice response units are used by service providers, such as banks and card companies, to fully or partially automate telephone call answering or responding to queries. Typically a voice response unit provides the capability to play voice prompts including recorded voice segments or speech synthesized from text and to receive responses thereto. The voice prompts are generally organized in the form of voice menus invoked by state tables. A state table can access and play a voice segment or synthesize speech from given text. The prompts are usually part of a voice application that is designed to, for example, allow a account holder to query information associated with their various accounts.
Further, voice response units are used in a variety of applications today to resolve account holder problems and questions in conjunction with customer service representatives. In a financial service industry, such voice response units often provide account holders general information via one or more automated messages. Usually, the account holder is also given the option to either bypass an automated message or after the automated message has concluded to interact with a customer service representative in order to receive more detailed information tailored to an account of the account holder.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system and a method that allows an account holder to enroll in an automatic payment plan during a telephone call without having to receive, execute and send back a form and to increase a credit limit associated with the account and/or receive another account benefit as a result of enrolling in the automatic payment plan.